Just a word now and then about working in a prison and for the Department Of Corrections. Plus a good bit of ranting here and there.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Warning! This Blog May Be Illegal!

Well, I can add another state to my list of places I can never visit again. Pretty soon they'll be putting me on a boat out to sea because I'll have run out of dry land to stay on.

The state of Tennessee has just enacted a law that makes it a crime to send, transmit, post or publish on the internet or over a cell phone any image that may "intimidate, frighten or cause emotional distress" to any recipient.

Hoo boy, that's just wide open, isn't it?

I wonder if there's any images on the state of Tennessee's home page that would cause anybody emotional distress?

As a matter of fact, the act of the state announcing this new law frightens, intimidates and causes me emotional distress.

Do you think I have a case?

What is today? National Juggling Day and Kitchen Klutzes Of America Day. Oh yeah. Think I'll go cook something.

I suspect that this has something to do with the whole "sexting" thing which is big news thanks to that Weiner...guy. First off, though, it's kind of blatant free speech violation, which is the one remaining freedom that anyone actually cares about in our so-called "free country". If we let that go "freedom" with truly be nothing but lip-service. Secondly, as you point out, it's so vague that it pretty much leaves anything up for grabs. I could claim that a picture of a kitten causes me "emotional distress" because I had a cat that died when I was a kid.

Of course, that have to do something, though. Some guy sent a picture of his johnson out into the world, and this simply can not be tolerated. America's hang-ups about sex are far, far more important than freedom.

Mr. Weiner's weiner aside, this kind of law could also be a reaction to bullying and intimidation, which occurs more and more through texts and emails, and is the kind of law that makes sense to me. But I can easily see how this could get abused. Wording a law in such a way that leaves it subjective is what doesn't make sense.